Honoring the forgotten horsemen throughout history

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Anthony “The Black Demon” Hamilton was a natural in the irons. Born in Charleston, S.C., in 1866, Hamilton was a complete rider, possessing a rare balance of strength and finesse, and the innate ability of knowing when to be aggressive and when to be patient throughout the course of a race.

Hamilton’s first notable victory was in 1881 when he piloted Sligo to victory in the Phoenix Handicap. Throughout the next 15 years, Hamilton won many of the most prestigious races in America, including all three of the major New York handicaps — the Brooklyn (twice), Suburban, and Manhattan. Hamilton is the only black rider to win all three of New York’s major handicaps.

In 1890, Hamilton won the third edition of the Futurity with the champion Potomac. The race was the richest event to date on the American turf with a purse of $67,675. Hamilton enjoyed a remarkable year in 1890, leading all riders with a 31.2 win percentage. The following year, Hamilton increased his win percentage to a staggering 33.8 and had 154 victories, which ranked second in the national standings.

Hamilton’s success in the major American races of his era was phenomenal. His prominent victories included the 1887 American Derby, back-to-back editions of the Monmouth Oaks in 1889 and 1890, the inaugural Gazelle Handicap in 1887, as well as the 1890 Gazelle, the 1891 Lawrence Realization Stakes, the 1888 St. Louis Derby, the inaugural Toboggan Handicap in 1890, the Monmouth Handicap in 1889 and 1892, the 1886 Nursery Stakes, the 1892 Great Trial Stakes, and five runnings of the Twin City Handicap (1886, 1888, 1889, 1892, and 1894), among others.

Many of the top owners in the sport sought out the services of Hamilton. He rode in the colors of Pierre Lorillard, Billy Lakeland, Mike Dwyer, J.R. Keene, and the Belmont family. Hamilton’s most famous mounts included Hall of Famers Firenze and Salvator, and the retrospective champions Potomac and Lamplighter.

Following his outstanding career in America, Hamilton enjoyed considerable success riding overseas. He won the Metropolitan Stakes of Vienna and the Karoli Memorial in Budapest, as well as the Ruler Stakes, the first leg of the Polish Triple Crown. Hamilton briefly rode in Russia during 1904, but his career came to an end there when he was thrown from a horse.

Hamilton then moved to France, where he died in 1907. Racing historian Fred Burlew, the son of a Hall of Fame trainer, ranked Hamilton third on his list of the 10 greatest African-American jockeys of all time behind only Hall of Famers Isaac Murphy and Willie Simms.

The accomplishments of African-American horsemen in the early years of the sport are often forgotten, but in the years between the Civil War and the turn of the century, they were very influential. In the first Kentucky Derby Aristides was trained by African-American Ansel Williamson and guided to victory by Oliver Lewis, one of 15 black jockeys in that race. Over all, 15 of the first 28 Kentucky Derbys were won by black jockeys and 5 were trained by black trainers.

Jimmy Winkfield

Jimmy Winkfield winner of the Kentucky Derby in 1901 and 1902

After the turn of the century, racing started to be a higher profile sport, and blacks were mostly seen only as stable help. The last black jockey to win the Kentucky Derby, Jimmy Winkfield who won in both 1901 and 1902, left the US for Europe and a lucrative racing career where it is rumored he even rode for the Czar of Russia. He became fluent in several languages before he retired with over 2300 winners to his credit. Winkfield was finally inducted in the Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 2004 and in 2005 Aqueduct Racetrack in New York City renamed the Best Turn Stakes to the Jimmy Winkfield Stakes, an early prep for the Kentucky Derby.

Isaac Murphy’s grave at the Kentucky Horse Park

Isaac Murphy who won 44% of all his races

Most famous of the black jockeys by far is Isaac Murphy who is considered one of the greatest riders in American history. He was the first jockey to win three Kentucky Derbys and won an astonishing 44% of all races he rode. That record has not been approached by any other jockey since. He was one of the first group of jockeys to be inducted into the Jockey Hall of Fame at the National Museum of Racing when it was started in 1955. Sadly, his career was cut short at the age of 34 when he died of pneumonia. He always had trouble staying at the light weight demanded of a jockey and was known to binge and purge. It has been speculated that it was vomit backing up in his lungs that caused the pneumonia which led to his death. He is buried next to Man O’ War in the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington. Here are a few other prominent black horsemen of the 1800’s:

Ed Brown who trained 1877 Kentucky Derby winner Baden-Baden

Alonzo Clayton who won the Kentucky Derby at only 15 years of age

James Perkins who also won the Derby at only 15

Willie Simms who won the Derby twice and each of the Triple Crown races at least once.

Patrick Husbands has won the Sovereign Award for Champion Jockey in Canada 7 times

In recent years, African-Americans have started coming back into the mainstream of racing. MC Hammer had the successful Oaktown Stable which raced the excellent filly Lite Light, winner of the Kentucky Oaks and other prestigious races. Barry Gordy of Motown fame has also had some success with his horses. More recently, jockey Marlon St. Julien has been very successful in the Texas and Chicago racing circuits and jockey Patrick Husbands is has been a leading jockey in Canada for several years, winning his 2000th race in 2009. Jockey DeShawn Parker, who mostly rides at Tampa Bay Downs and Mountaineer Park, was ranked first in the US by wins in 2010 and 2011.

BOSTON (BASN) — Most famous of the black jockeys by far is Isaac Murphy who is considered one of the greatest riders in American history. He was the first jockey to win three Kentucky Derbys and won an astonishing 44% of all races he rode.

Sadly, his career was cut short at the age of 34 when he died of pneumonia.

He always had trouble staying at the light weight demanded of a jockey and was known to binge and purge. It has been speculated that it was vomit backing up in his lungs that caused the pneumonia which led to his death.

He is buried next to Man O’ War in the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington.

Willie Simms was a superb rider of the late 19th century. He brought winning mounts to the wire 24.8% of the time.Simms was born in 1870 in Augusta, Ga., and began riding at East Coast tracks in 1887.

During his career he rode for the most prominent owners of the era, including Mike and Phil Dwyer, Richard Croker, Pierre Lorillard, August Belmont, and James R. Keene. Simms won back-to-back Belmont Stakes in 1893-94 aboard Commanche and Henry of Navarre.

He also was a two-time winner of the Kentucky Derby aboard Ben Brush and Plaudit and was the only African-American jockey to win the Preakness, aboard Sly Fox in 1898.

One of Simms’ most dramatic races was a match between Dobbin and Domino in 1893. Simms and Dobbin finished in a dead heat with the previously unbeaten Domino.

Simms found great success riding the New York circuit in the 1890′s. He also briefly rode in England in 1895. Many sources credit Simms with introducing the British to the short stirrup style of riding later popularized by Tod Sloan.

Willie Simms was the nation’s leading jockey in 1894. He was inducted in the Hall of Fame in 1977.

Kevin Krigger has never won a Triple Crown race, but he admits it’s been on his bucket list since arriving in the U.S. from his native St. Croix more than a decade ago.

On May 18, 2014 he could become the first African-American jockey to win the Preakness Stakes (gr. I) since Willie Simms’ victory in 1898. The only other African-American to ride to victory in the Preakness was George “Spider” Anderson, who did so in 1889.

“Basically that’s just part of the history,” said the soft-spoken Krigger, who will be the first African-American jockey to ride in the Preakness since Wayne Barnett finished eighth aboard Sparrowvon in 1985. “The media actually is paying more attention to it than I am because I really don’t have time to worry about that. I’m focused here on getting Goldencents in the Preakness winner’s circle.”

Krigger could have been back home riding at Betfair Hollywood Park, but trainer Doug O’Neill asked him to stay with the Santa Anita Derby (gr. I) winner and be aboard for all of his subsequent training for the Preakness.

Goldencents finished 17th as the third betting choice in the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I), which was contested over a sloppy, sealed track at Churchill Downs.

“It was one of those races where…we just had to go back to the drawing board,” said Krigger, who has been aboard for all seven of Goldencents’ races. “We didn’t get the outcome we were looking for, but the greatest thing is the horse came back healthy and we’re here getting ready for the Preakness.”

Krigger said he eased up on the son of Into Mischief once he realized he was out of contention in the Derby, so he hasn’t lost any confidence in him. O’Neill admitted he was impressed by the fact that Krigger did the right thing by his colt.

“Kevin’s such a positive guy and such a positive rider,” O’Neill said May 14 after Krigger took Goldencents out for his regular morning gallop around Pimlico Race Course. “He’s been great with the horse, and we’re pretty lucky to have a guy to make that kind of commitment. It just shows how dedicated he is and how passionate he is. He’s a real team player.”

Krigger said it wasn’t a difficult decision to make the commitment to Goldencents.

“I have a lot of faith in him,” Krigger said. “I’ve been on this horse every time, and these guys stuck with me. They kept me on this horse this far, and I would have felt bad if I was in California after they asked me to stay here… As easily as I could have ridden other horses back there, they could have had someone else on him. I’m on him because they have faith in my riding ability and we get along—not just me and the horse, but me and the entire team. They’re great to work with.”

Meanwhile, Krigger has become something of a local hero in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where his family still lives.

“I found out about two days before the Derby that I had a Facebook page,” said the 29-year-old Preakness rookie. “I guess it was put together by my sister and my cousin, and my mother informed me that the Virgin Islands media are trying to get hold of me to do interviews. She also informed me that a lot of kids are leaving comments as far as I inspired them to follow their dreams. I don’t really keep up with social media, but that made me appreciate [it].”

Only two of the past eight Derby winners have also captured the Middle Jewel of the Triple Crown: Big Brown in 2008 and the O’Neill-trained I’ll Have Another last year. (I’ll Have Another never got his Triple Crown chance when he came up injured the day before the Belmont Stakes).

“I feel we have a good chance to win again; if we get a good trip, I think we can,” said O’Neill, who also paid his respects to Derby winner Orb . “Shug’s (McGaughey) a Hall of Fame trainer. (Orb) is a Triple Crown threat for sure.”

George “Spider” Anderson: First Black Jockey to Win the Preakness

George B. “Spider” Anderson is considered one of the greatest African American jockeys in horse racing history. There are no details available on George Anderson’s early life, not even the place or date of his birth.

Anderson achieved his greatest accomplishment by being the first African American jockey to win the Preakness Stakes held at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland. The Preakness Stakes is the 2nd stage of the Triple Crown series, between the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont Stakes in New York.

On May 10, 1889, the day of the race, Anderson struck one of his coaches, James Cook, across the head with a whip. The reason for this altercation between the two remains unknown. There is however speculation that because the 1889 Preakness Stakes only consisted of two horses; Buddhist, rode by Anderson, and Japhet, owned by former Maryland Governor Oden Bowie, there was tension between Cook, who was a friend of Governor Bowie, and Anderson. There may have been words exchanged before the race which led to Anderson’s attack. Despite the altercation, Anderson was allowed to participate in the Preakness Stakes before receiving any punishment for his assault on Cook by authorities.

Anderson won the race riding Buddhist and easily beating Japhet. Anderson finished the race with an astonishing time of 2:17.50 and became the 17th winner of the Preakness Stakes.

In 1891, Anderson had two other significant victories to his career, the Alabama Stakes at the Saratoga Race Course in Upstate New York and the Philip H. Iselin Handicap at the Monmouth Race Course in New Jersey.

ANNAPOLIS – In 1889, George “Spider” Anderson became the first black jockey to win the Preakness. In those days black jockeys were not uncommon.

In fact, the first Kentucky Derby in 1875 was run with a field of mostly black riders, one of whom, Oliver Lewis, won the race.

Not much is known about Anderson, said Dr. Kenneth Cohen, a professor of early American history at St. Mary’s College of Maryland.

Unlike Jimmy Winkfield, who is the first jockey to win consecutive Kentucky Derbies (1901, 1902) and has a race named in his honor (The Jimmy Winkfield Stakes on Long Island, N.Y.), Cohen said there is no historical trace of Anderson after 1891.

Anderson’s fate, Cohen said, is not uncommon for black riders of the era, calling his career, “short and illustrious.”

Anderson’s horse, Buddhist, owned by Samuel S. Brown, originally had no opponent. If that occurs the jockey merely trots his horse around the track to secure victory. Cohen said former Gov. Oden Bowie entered his own horse, Japhet, just so advertisers of the race would not have been upset by the lack of competition.

Anderson won comfortably by 10 lengths.

Before the Preakness, Anderson’s gradual rise can be historically charted in newspapers of the time, said Cohen. For example, Anderson was listed in Baltimore and D.C. races in 1884, though he lost in both.

Even if Anderson’s rise was gradual, from a historical perspective, his disappearance was abrupt.

With licenses in New York and New Orleans, Cohen said Anderson continued to win after the Preakness, including at the Alabama Stakes in Saratoga, NY, in 1891. But after that year, Cohen said, Anderson is not heard from again.

Cohen said as important as Anderson’s Preakness win is, how he was erased from the sport’s history is also significant.

His disappearance in record is peculiar because he was repeatedly mentioned in race results at a time in the 19th century when the focus was typically on the owner, which Cohen suggests makes it strange for Anderson to disappear without mention.

Though he admits it is conjecture, Cohen explained the significance of the inability to historically track Anderson after 1891.

Jim Crow laws most likely aided the end of Anderson’s career, Cohen said, as they did most other black jockeys.

Tennis great Arthur Ashe once wrote in the New York Times that once the Jockey Club was formed in the early 1890’s and controlled the issuance and regulation of jockey licenses, blacks were denied theirs.

Isom Dart is one of those black cowboys whose adventures are often left untold. Born a slave in Arkansas and later freed by the Civil War he rode West. His pursuits ranged from rodeo rider to cattle rustler. His life came to an abrupt end when he was shot down in Cold Springs, Colorado by an unknown assailant on October 3, 1900.

Ned Huddleston (also known as Isom Dart) was born into slavery in Arkansas in 1849. His reputation as a rider, roper and bronco-buster earned him the nicknames of the “Black Fox” and the “Calico Cowboy.” He was also a notorious Wyoming Territory outlaw.In 1861 twelve-year-old Huddleston accompanied his owner, a Confederate officer, into Texas during the Civil War. After being freed at the end of the war Huddleston headed for the southern Texas-Mexico border region where he found work at a rodeo, became a stunt rider and honed his skills as a master horseman.

Huddleston straddled both sides of the law. For a time he and a young Mexican bandit named Terresa survived as rustlers stealing horses in Mexico and selling them in Texas. Huddleston later joined a cattle drive heading northwest to Brown’s Hole in the Colorado-Wyoming area around 1871. The 6’2” Huddleston briefly found success mining gold and silver then claimed his partner cheated him out of his earnings.

After a tumultuous love affair with a Shoshone Indian woman in 1875, Huddleston joined the infamous Tip Gault Gang, a cattle and horse rustling outfit of southeastern Wyoming. After narrowly escaping death he went further west and started a new life as a hard-working man. He changed his name to Isom Dart and made a living as a bronco buster.

Isom Dart later returned to Brown’s Hole around 1890 and established his own ranch, but local cattlemen suspected he had built up his ranch herd from cattle he’d rustled from their ranches. The ranchers hired the notorious range detective, Tom Horn, to punish Dart. Horn ambushed and killed Isom Dart on October 3, 1900 near Brown’s Hole. Public opinion was (and continues to be) divided about Dart’s guilt. Some Brown’s Hole residents mourned his death, claiming Dart was killed by cattleman who wanted his land and cattle. They saw Dart as a good-hearted, talented horseman and a top bronc stomper. Others believed he never completely relinquished his life of cattle rustling and thus remained a menace to the community.

Sources:
Tricia Martineau Wagner, Black Cowboys of the Old West (Guilford, Connecticut: The Globe Pequot Press, 2011); Dean F. Krakel, The Saga of Tom Horn: The Story of the Cattleman’s War, with Personal Narratives, Newspaper Accounts and Official Documents and Testimonies (Laramie, WY: Powder River Publishers, 1954); Arthur Cromwell, The Black Frontier (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Television, 1970).
– See more at: http://www.blackpast.org/aaw/isom-dart-1849-1900#sthash.vav57khL.dpuf

Race Horse Men recaptures the vivid sights, sensations, and illusions of nineteenth-century thoroughbred racing, America’s first mass spectator sport. Inviting readers into the pageantry of the racetrack, Katherine C. Mooney conveys the sport’s inherent drama while also revealing the significant intersections between horse racing and another quintessential institution of the antebellum South: slavery.

A popular pastime across American society, horse racing was most closely identified with an elite class of southern owners who bred horses and bet large sums of money on these spirited animals. The central characters in this story are not privileged whites, however, but the black jockeys, grooms, and horse trainers who sometimes called themselves race horse men and who made the racetrack run. Mooney describes a world of patriarchal privilege and social prestige where blacks as well as whites could achieve status and recognition and where favored slaves endured an unusual form of bondage. For wealthy white men, the racetrack illustrated their cherished visions of a harmonious, modern society based on human slavery.

After emancipation, a number of black horsemen went on to become sports celebrities, their success a potential threat to white supremacy and a source of pride for African Americans. The rise of Jim Crow in the early twentieth century drove many horsemen from their jobs, with devastating consequences for them and their families. Mooney illuminates the role these too-often-forgotten men played in Americans’ continuing struggle to define the meaning of freedom.

Review

Writing with exceptional polish and élan, Katherine Mooney succeeds brilliantly at restoring humanity to black jockeys and trainers. This superb book says as much about the cruelties and distortions wrought by racism in nineteenth-century America as any single book can. (W. Fitzhugh Brundage, author of The Southern Past: A Clash of Race and Memory)

Katherine Mooney leads us inside the paddock and beyond the finish line to reveal how horse racing shaped American society and molded race relations. In doing so, she brings to life the struggles of numerous individuals long lost to history. The result is an eye-opening and important book. (Louis P. Masur, author of Lincoln’s Hundred Days: The Emancipation Proclamation and the War for the Union)

Katherine Mooney gives us a vivid, pioneering study of the horse-racing world, a mainstay of nineteenth-century American and Southern culture. Her portrayal of the lives of black jockeys is a revelation. She uses sporting drama to illuminate the interplay between callousness and selective personal affection that pervaded white attitudes toward blacks. (Melvin Patrick Ely, author of Israel on the Appomattox: A Southern Experiment in Black Freedom from the 1790s Through the Civil War)

Black men were active in 19th-century racing, most prominent in the South, as jockeys, grooms, and trainers for this first large spectator sport in the United States…But Mooney shows how white resentment of black presence and success at the race track increased. Whites feared that the example of success that these race-horse men set would incite other blacks to demand more rights and become violent. With the rise of Jim Crow in the South, blacks were driven out of the sport. (Patsy Gray Library Journal 2014-03-15)

Mooney’s book draws on the stories and memoirs of a range of figures across racing, as the sport became simultaneously a Southern specialty and an object of popular fascination. Race Horse Men is stitched out of these portraits, many of which are wonderfully effective in revealing just how ambiguous, for example, the situation of enslaved grooms, trainers, jockeys, and breeding-shed managers could be…Mooney’s book is at its strongest when it peers not into the clubhouse but out into the stables…She positions her history to thread together a large chunk of time, when racing carried the burden of chattel slavery and civil war. (Eric Banks Chronicle of Higher Education 2014-05-05)

Katherine Mooney’s enthralling account of an all-but-forgotten population of elite slaves in the American South reads like a novel. Race Horse Men is both the story of 19th century thoroughbred racing–‘America’s first mass-audience sport’–and a detailed portrait of the expert equestrian slaves and free black horsemen upon whose competence in the stables wealthy white ‘turfmen’ depended…Mooney makes a strong case for why these forgotten histories continue to illuminate systems of inequality to this day. (Thomas Chatterton Williams San Francisco Chronicle 2014-05-30)

It is that history–of rich white men, enslaved black men, and the birth of American horse racing–that Katherine C. Mooney tells in Race Horse Men. Scholarly yet accessible, the book argues that far from subverting the racist notions of the slave-holding South, black horsemen were seen as ‘the perfect slaves, precisely calibrated extensions of a master’s will’ and ‘central figures in turfmen’s vision of the harmony of a slave society.’ (Kate Tuttle Boston Globe 2014-06-01)

About the Author

Katherine C. Mooney is Assistant Professor of History at Florida State University.